Bangladesh: eight lynched over false rumours of child sacrifices

Police use loudspeakers to counter online reports that children were being killed for bridge-building project

Eight people have been killed in vigilante lynchings in Bangladesh, sparked by rumours on social media of children being kidnapped and sacrificed as offerings for the construction of a mega-bridge, police said on Wednesday.

The victims - who include two women - were targeted by angry mobs over the rumours, spread mostly on Facebook, that said human heads were required for the massive $3bn project, police chief Javed Patwary said in Dhaka. "We have analysed every single case of these eight killings. Those who were killed by lynching mobs - no one was a child kidnapper."